How to write Resumes - Classic

Whether your career is in a conservative industry such as banking, finance, and education, or a nontraditional sector such as entertainment and the arts, your resume should:

1. Quickly capture the hiring manager’s attention.

2. Detail the skills and qualifications you can bring to the job.

3. Dovetail your past experience with the needs of the current position.

4. Showcase accomplishments.

5. Provide relevant academic data.

A classic resume can effectively do all of that, while also being aesthetically pleasing within the perimeters of your chosen industry.

How, you ask?

By addressing the unique requirements of each of the following points:

• Name
• Contact Information (Address/Phone/Email)
• Subheadings
• Employment Dates
• Places of Employment
• When to Include Personal Data
• Designer Fonts & Bullets versus the Traditional
• Templates
• Graphics
• Text Presentation: Bullets versus Paragraphs
• Stylish Resumes

Name

How your name is displayed on your resume not only personalizes the document, but also sets a conservative or stylish tone for the rest of the resume.  It's important that the choices you make here will appeal to hiring managers in your chosen industry.

Regardless of your industry or targeted position, your name should always appear at the very top of the resume, in large enough type to distinguish it from the rest of the document.

A conservative approach in Times New Roman:

Paul Malone

In Courier:

Paul Malone

In Arial:

Paul Malone

Remember that your name should be in a font that is representative of your industry (conservative or nontraditional), and one that can be easily read by a busy hiring manager.

Contact Information

This is one of the most critical areas of your resume. Should the hiring manager find your qualifications a good match for the opening, you don't want to make that person work to find how to locate or contact you.

Therefore, in modern resumes, contact information is clearly placed at the beginning of the resume, unless a more stylish approach is warranted. But even then, it's always wise to place the most important contact information -- phone numbers & email -- at the top of your document. Since most hiring managers will not contact a successful candidate by "snail" mail, physical addresses can be minimized, sometimes even left to the bottom of a one-page resume.

Again, what’s most important is to place the contact information (address/phone/email) in a location that is easily accessible and readable by the hiring authority.

Subheadings

In modern resumes, subheadings are used to separate and prioritize essential information as it pertains to the current job search.  They also serve as visual cues to the hiring manager that one section has ended and another begun.

Subheadings can be centered:

Professional Experience

Or flush left:

Professional Experience

They may be underscored for added emphasis:

Professional Experience

Or set off by horizontal lines:

1. Summary of Qualifications or Profile
2. Career Accomplishments
3. Computer Skills
4. Professional Experience or Work History
5. Education
6. Specialized Training

Order of Subheadings

In all modern resumes, information is prioritized according to importance, with the most relevant pieces -- as they relate to the current job search -- appearing first.

Therefore, if you were a recent graduate with an academic, rather than a work-related, background in your chosen field, Education would precede Professional Experience.  On the other hand, if you have had several years of solid work experience in your field, the Professional Experience would come first.

The key is always to highlight the most relevant data.

Employment Dates

Because hiring managers are bombarded with dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of resumes on a daily basis, the key in writing an effective resume is to make the data as easily accessible and readable as possible. 

In presenting dates you must:

1. Make certain that years of employment are in reverse chronological order. That is, the most recent job should be presented first, followed by the next most recent, and so on.
2. Indicate exact dates of employment for each position if you have had more than one at the same company.
3. Format your resume so that dates are easily located, rather than hidden within other data.
4. Avoid using months, except on resumes for federal government jobs that require such data, or on resumes going to graduate schools as part of the application process.

Presenting data in reverse-chronological order:

If you worked for ABC Company from 1999 to the present, and at XYZ Company from 1989 to 1999, your data would be written in this manner:

Let’s say you worked at ABC Company from 1989 to the present and held three positions of increasing responsibility.  The best way to present that would be:

Formatting dates:

Because a hiring manager will most often scan, rather than read, a resume, it’s best to provide dates of employment immediately after the company’s name and location, preferably with those dates flush right.  This separation avoids the dates getting lost in the other data, yet still showcases them for potential employers.

Using years of employment, rather than months & years

By excluding months, you can improve the readability of the data, while also downplaying brief periods of employment.  For example, indicating that you worked during the year 2000 is certainly more positive than indicating that you only worked January - February 2000.

Places of Employment

Rarely does the location of your employer matter more than what you accomplished while there.

However, in some cases location does matter.  This would generally apply to someone who has international experience and is continuing to seek a position internationally.

Rather than hope the hiring manager notices the location of your employers, it’s best to bring this information out quickly and effectively.

One way to do that is to mention it in the Qualifications Summary or Profile paragraph that begins your resume.

When to Include Personal Data

US resumes do not include personal data such as date of birth, sex, religious affiliation, race, or social security numbers.  The only exception to the last entry, social security numbers, would be when applying to the federal government for a position.  Then, and only then, social security numbers should be listed on a resume.

However, the rules change when you are submitting your resume to overseas employers.

Although each country has a different set of requirements regarding which pieces of personal information they most want to see, generally most will ask for the following:

1. Date of Birth

2. Place of Birth

3. Citizenship/Nationality

4. Sex

5. Race

6. Marital Status

Personal data such as hobbies or activities

Because the modern resume is a business and marketing tool, it’s best to keep personal interests and hobbies for the interview process as a way to “break the ice.”  This is especially true if your activities involve some perceived risk or danger.  A candidate who is otherwise qualified for a management position might have his resume passed over if he “runs the rapids” on the weekends or participates in a parachuting club.  Activities with risk aren’t the only ones to caution against.  A candidate who collects rare coins -- an expensive hobby -- may have her resume passed over by a hiring manager for a position that involves controlling a company’s funds.

Remember, hiring managers want to know what you can do for their company in terms of boosting profits or reducing expenses.  What you do on your own time is best kept off a resume.

References

Unless, and until, you are asked to interview for a position, references should not be provided to a prospective employer.

Designer Fonts & Bullets versus Traditional Ones

Fonts

With the advent of computer software and PCs, everyone now has the capability of desktop publishing, complete with fancy fonts.

However, with these innovations come problems, especially if you’re sending your resume via email (as an attachment) to a prospective employer.

Generally speaking, only classic fonts such as Times New Roman and Arial are universal on PCs.  Designer fonts like BlackAdder II, Broadway, Mistral, and Stencil must be purchased or downloaded from free font sites on the Internet.  Because of this, a resume created using BlackAdder II might look great on your computer, but once it’s transmitted to the employer’s computer, another font will likely be substituted.  What does that substitution do?  Well, for one, it throws off formatting, potentially stretching your perfect one-page resume onto two or more pages, because fonts differ in height, depth, and the amount of spacing between characters.  And while BlackAdder II is a rather elegant, stylish font, the one the computer will substitute may very well be bulky and, quite frankly, ugly.

Therefore, if you’re going to be sending your resume as an attachment to numerous employers, it’s always best to use Times New Roman or Arial.  That way, you know your formatting and the overall look of the resume will remain true.

Bullets

Like designer fonts, designer bullets add flair to a resume.  And like those fonts, designer bullets are not universal on all PCs.  So if you choose one that’s a check mark, a small arrow, a five-pointed star, or anything other than the universal round bullet, those dynamite designs may very well turn up as question marks or numerals on the hiring manager’s computer.

Remember, the best time to use designer fonts and bullets is when you’re “snail” mailing your resume to an employer or handing it to them in person -- that is, when you have a hard copy of your resume for distribution.  For those resumes being sent as attachments, it’s best to go with traditional fonts and bullets.

Templates

Although email transmission of documents may very well compromise the appearance of designer fonts and bullets, one way to add style or flair to your resume is to consider the use of a less conservative or traditional template. This would hold especially true for designers and others who are employed in entertainment or the arts.  In some cases, even those who are employed in conservative fields (e.g. banking, finance, education, and healthcare) will find that the use of a more stylish template enhances their candidacy by making their resumes stand out from all the others -- as long as the template is still elegant in appearance.

Graphics

There is no quicker or more effective way to capture a hiring manager’s attention than by the appropriate use of graphics in a resume.

Graphics can be used to:

1. Display a logo for a webmaster.

2. Indicate a certification for someone in the IT field.

3. Be used as a backdrop to indicate a career field.

4. Showcase work completed by a graphic designer or an artist candidate

Text Presentation: Bullets vs. Paragraphs

As you create your resume, your primary objective should be to present data in a clear, easy-to-read manner.  Generally speaking, providing Professional Experience and Career Accomplishments in a bulleted format will offer information in an easily digestible format.  Why?

In this economy, hiring managers are busier than ever, scanning more and more applicant resumes.  When faced with a document that is text heavy, featuring blocks of uninterrupted type, next to one in which that same data is presented in a clean, easy-to-read bulleted format, which do you think the hiring manager will choose?

An example:

Paragraph format

Configured and supported company’s PC’s in heterogeneous LAN environment with over 350 users; supported company LAN/WAN, including installation and configuration of company routers, switches, and hubs. Led three person team supporting operations for Novell 4.11 file, print, Unix, and Windows NT 4.0 servers, as well as Windows NT 4.0 workstations, Windows 95 & 98 desktops, and remote access laptops. Administered and managed security for remote access service through Windows NT 4.0 servers to access corporate LAN/WAN. Designed/developed standard desktop environment and prepared system images for deployment. Supported Lotus Notes 4.6 clients, including remote replication of server databases. Wrote and distributed procedures for end-users and technicians for upgrading and implementing system/software roll-outs.

The same information in a bulleted format

• Configured and supported company’s PC’s in heterogeneous LAN environment with over 350 users; supported company LAN/WAN, including installation and configuration of company routers, switches, and hubs.
• Led three person team supporting operations for Novell 4.11 file, print, Unix, and Windows NT 4.0 servers, as well as Windows NT 4.0 workstations, Windows 95 & 98 desktops, and remote access laptops.
• Administered and managed security for remote access service through Windows NT 4.0 servers to access corporate LAN/WAN.
• Designed/developed standard desktop environment and prepared system images for deployment.
• Supported Lotus Notes 4.6 clients, including remote replication of server databases.
• Wrote and distributed procedures for end-users and technicians for upgrading and implementing system/software roll-outs.

In the first example, the data is uninterrupted, dense, and daunting. The second example, on the other hand, allows the hiring manager to pause and digest the data before moving on to the next sentence.

by ResumeEdge.com